Inquiry shows abuse of penalty points system persists

Hundreds of cases of abuse of the penalty points system are likely to be referred to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC), after the internal Garda probe into the affair found "the majority" of cases looked at warranted "further investigation".

The audit was carried out by a special task force set up within the force’s professional standards unit by interim Garda commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan after fresh allegations by Garda whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe.

The Irish Times understands the task force looked at 600 sample cases of quashed points and was astonished to find that a majority of these warranted "further investigation".

It is understood further investigation will involve the cases being referred to GSOC. A lot of them are said to be going forward because they are “bogus” or “unlawful”.

The audit shows gardaí were continuing to terminate driving offence records on behalf of colleagues even after Ms O’Sullivan had set up the internal audit in September. In all cases, the gardaí who had points terminated had a history of previous penalty point cancellations in recent years.

Discrepancies

In addition, it was found there were significant discrepancies in the excuses provided by gardaí who had speeding offences terminated while using their private vehicle as an “emergency vehicle”.

In some cases, there was no record on the force’s Pulse system to indicate what emergency they had been attending.

In a number of cases, the task force asked the Garda for files relating to specific cases of penalty points being quashed but none were found to be in existence.

The audit contains more than 30 recommendations. One of these is that a new unit be set up to review thousands of road offences that have been left unexamined in the force’s central processing office in Thurles following postal errors.

Letters marked “undelivered” were returned to the Garda by An Post, but no action was taken by officers to correct the mistakes.

The task force suggests the new unit should be set up in Thurles or Dublin and ought to be manned primarily by serving gardaí with access to Pulse, who can investigate the previous conduct of individuals who repeatedly have offences terminated. There is a large civilian staff in the force’s central processing office with no access to Pulse.

Any driver who accumulates 12 penalty points within any given three-year period is automatically disqualified from driving for six months.

Postal errors

However, there are several examples of individuals who have accumulated upwards of this figure, but are still on the roads as a result of the failure to follow up on the postal errors. There was one individual who accumulated 24 penalty points, but who wasn’t caught due to a mistake with his address.

There was widespread evidence that gardaí who had tickets cancelled on the basis of “medical emergency” had never submitted any documentation to support the claims, or in cases where evidence was submitted the evidence of any medical condition was inadequate.

Another recommendation relates to improving the verification of medical claims submitted by motorists in such cases, including for gardaí and non-gardaí.

It’s understood the task force is recommending there be a dedicated “summons server” in every division in the State because approximately half of summonses aren’t being served. In some cases, there were individuals with five or six summonses that had not been served.

The group is recommending that an audit of the penalty points system be carried out annually by a senior counsel or a retired judge.